The Straits Times
Forum Section
June 26, 2009
ALTHOUGH the concerns raised by residents are not baseless, approval of a hotel development in the area is in line with demand for more hotels as Singapore gears up for the integrated resorts launch and major events like Formula One and the Youth Olympic Games.
It is shortsighted to claim that an hourly hotel will encourage vice in the area.
Vice can be conducted in any hotel.
Major five-star hotels see engagements between high-class call girls and their high-net-worth customers.
Tiong Bahru residents may have overlooked the fact that the area was once home to drug peddlers and loan sharks.
It was not exactly wholesome to begin with.
Hotel 81 started next to Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre in 2007 in the midst of landed properties and HDB flats.
I have lived in this area for more than two decades and even after the opening of the hotel, there have been no vice activities.
Raymund Koh
3 comments:
Dear Raymund,
High class vices are not conducted in the streets. What is unseen, we do not care.
Your accusation on how Tiong Bahru was once home to drug peddlers and loan sharks is utter rubbish.
1 or 2 of them does not make up the entire estate.
My family has lived here since it was privatised in 1967. There might be 1 or 2 bad hats but the population here are generally nice.
I'm glad the residents here take pride and ownership of this estate and will make their concerns known.
This is something not many estates can boast off.
Our take is this, Hotels - Yes, Hourly rated ones - NO!!!!!
aiya !! he's working in STB or URA ....who will be so free to write when the issue doesn't even concern him or his estate ?
SERANGOON ?? to him, that's only a place that he stays , he doesn't have any feeling for that town call Serangoon .... For Children like us who were born in TB,Grew up and studied in TB ,this is our hometown that we love.... 浮浅的人是不会了解。。。 Ya !! he grew up eating grass in his estate !!
Raymund's reply hints of selfishness and bitterness. Even though Upper Serangoon have a Hotel 81 and the residents there might even have indeed welcomed the presence of a Hotel 81 when it first opened...
HOWEVER, here at Tiong Bahru, we DO NOT welcome the presence of an hourly-rated Hotel 81 and are simply banding together to make our views known to URA and STB.
If the residents of Upper Serangoon opposed the idea of a Hotel 81 opening in their neighbourhood in the first place, perhaps they should have voiced their concerns like what the Tiong Bahru residents are doing now.
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